{"id":362495,"date":"2025-12-21T21:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/362495\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T21:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:02:07","slug":"us-pursuing-third-oil-tanker-near-venezuela-reports-dw-12-21-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/362495\/","title":{"rendered":"US pursuing third oil tanker near Venezuela \u2014 reports \u2013 DW \u2013 12\/21\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States is pursuing an oil tanker in waters near <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/venezuela\/t-38335048\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venezuela<\/a>, according to multiple news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>Washington considered the vessel to be part of Venezuela&#8217;s &#8220;sanctioned dark fleet&#8221; under\u00a0&#8220;Venezuela&#8217;s illegal sanctions evasion,&#8221; according to the Reuters and Associated Press reports each citing an unnamed US official.<\/p>\n<p>Both reports cited a US official as saying the vessel was flying a false flag and had been placed under a judicial \u2060seizure order by the US.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters cited a different official as saying that the tanker had not been boarded and that interceptions can also take the form of sailing close to the vessel being pursued.<\/p>\n<p>Why is the US blocking Venezuelan oil tankers?<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, US President <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/trump-orders-blockade-of-venezuelas-sanctioned-oil-tankers\/a-75193611\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers<\/a> entering and leaving Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>On Truth Social, Trump also announced that he was designating the Venezuelan regime as &#8220;a foreign terrorist organisation.&#8221;\u00a0He cited reasons including the theft of assets, terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/us-seizes-another-tanker-venezuela\/a-75255467\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Coast Guard seized an oil tanker off Venezuela<\/a> on Saturday. This was the second vessel taken by Washington in the campaign, with the <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/trump-says-us-seized-very-large-oil-tanker-near-venezuela\/a-75098714\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first tanker seized last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela has denounced the seizures as &#8220;theft&#8221; and &#8220;international piracy&#8221; and has vowed to defend its sovereignty and natural resources.<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"74871331\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/74871331_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holding Venezuelan flag\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>Trump has called for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (pictured) to relinquish power [FILE: November 15, 2025]Image: Pedro Mattey\/Anadolu Agency\/IMAGO<\/p>\n<p>Trump has called for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down and has suggested the US could carry out\u00a0air strikes targeting Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>Washington accuses Maduro&#8217;s government, without presenting evidence, of\u00a0<a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/trump-venezuela-maduro-oil-sanctions-cuba-war-on-drugs\/a-75232235\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">having ties to the Cartel de los Soles criminal organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The US has <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/venezuela-and-us-conflict-whats-it-all-about\/a-75110149\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">destroyed multiple Venezuelan boats<\/a> in the Caribbean, which it alleges were trafficking drugs, over the last several months in strikes that have killed at least 90 people.<\/p>\n<p>Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States is pursuing an oil tanker in waters near Venezuela, according to multiple news agency reports.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-362495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}